[Elecraft] OT: WWV/WWVH Closure

[Fred Jensen]

I doubt that.  LORAN A and C were pulse systems with high peak power 
[some LORAN C stations fed over a megawatt peak to the antenna], but the 
average power was much lower.  Before LORAN C's demise, a handful of 
stations were fitted with Accufix transmitters by Megapulse Corporation 
... no tubes, no oscillators, no amplifiers ... just a highly 
technologically advanced spark gap transmitter.

The NIST description for WWVB is found at 
<https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/radio-stations/wwvb> 
Briefly, 2 transmitters feeding two capacity-loaded monopoles about 850 
m apart.  Combined fwd power is about 100 KW.  One of the antennas was 
originally used for WWVL on 20 KHz [decommissioned in the 70's].

There is some confusion regarding rumors of the demise of WWV/WWVH ... 
and maybe WWVB:

1.  Congress, not the White House, appropriates $$ to government 
agencies.  The House and Senate are said by an ARRL Director to have 
passed their bills and they are now in or about to be in conference 
committee.  It appears they both appropriate substantially more than 
NIST requested, and their numbers are moderately close so reconciliation 
in conference is likely.

2.  There is the internal NIST budgetary document that started all the 
rumors.

3.  NIST is planning a "Grand Celebration" for the 100th birthday of WWV 
in Oct 2019 [presumably without a military parade].  WWV is said to be 
the oldest continuously operating radio station in the US.

Confusing indeed.  This could all be similar to the rumor rampant on the 
I'net a decade or so ago about not flying between some dates in August 
because the GPS Week Number was about to overflow its word length, 
rolling over to zero, and airplanes would be falling out of the sky.  
The Week Nr did overflow, but no airplanes are known to have plummeted 
to Earth.

More Trivia:  In the very early days of WWV, the time signals were in 
Morse code.  [I remember in the early 50's they were too, in Eastern 
Time].  WWV also broadcast farm reports and news ... using Morse code.  
I had no idea the wheat, corn, and soybean farmers of the day  could 
copy the code.

73,

Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
Sparks NV DM09dn
Washoe County

On 8/20/2018 9:54 AM, Rose wrote:
> Trivia ..
>
> The last I knew the WWVB transmitter is a "repurposed" 100KW
> LORAN C TX from the closed site in ND.
>
> 73!
>
> K0PP
>
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 20, 2018 at 10:45 AM, Charlie T <pincon at erols.com> wrote:
>
>> Yeah, I'd miss them, BUT, my little Elecraft hand-held XG3 sig gen is
>> pretty
>> handy for that too .
>>
>> Also, I don't believe funding for the 60kHz sig was ever at risk and THAT's
>> what your (antique) watch uses.
>>
>> 73, Charlie k3ICH
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net <elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net>
>> On
>> Behalf Of Wayne Burdick
>> Sent: Monday, August 20, 2018 11:53 AM
>> To: Elecraft Reflector <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
>> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] WWV/WWVH Closure
>>
>> Personal note....
>>
>> Ever since I home-brewed my first receiver when I was 15, I've used WWV at
>> multiple frequencies as a source of reliable on-air test signals.
>>
>> My early receivers used simple direct-conversion schemes based on JFETs
>> (remember the MPF102?). Get the details wrong, and you'd hear WWV whether
>> you were tuned to it or not, thanks to what I now know was IP2 (AM
>> breakthrough). Do it right, and you'd be rewarded with those undulating
>> time-tones: minimalist, almost musical. Something Phillip Glass would pipe
>> into his sensory-deprevation tank. Oh, and you could set your watch to it.
>>
>> These days I still tune into WWV to check VFO calibration, set clocks in
>> the
>> field, and get an approximation of the MUF (Maximum usable frequency). When
>> propagation is good, even the 20.000000 MHz signal soars across the aether,
>> a faithful and tireless chronological savant.
>>
>> Losing it would be a tragedy, but a nerdy one, not Greek.
>>
>> Wayne
>> N6KR
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